lugar: mr.t, as we debate the defense appropriations bill, i want to take the opportunity to update my colleagues on the activities of the nunn-lugar cooperative threat reduction program that is funded in this bill. i'm very pleased the defense appropriations bill contains $424.1 million for the nunn-lugar program this year. this amount of funding will ensure the continuation of the current nunn-lugar projects and will permit the nunn-lugar act to take on new tasks in new countries, principally in the areas of biological threat reduction. 18 years ago senator sam nunn of georgia and i along with a bipartisan group of legislators in the last hours of that 1991 session determined that our government had to address the proliferation threats posed by dissolution of the soviet union. in the waning days of the 1991 congressional year, we passed legislation establishing the nunn-lugar cooperative threat reduction program which devotes american technical expertise and money for joint efforts to safeguar

. >> senators richa lugar and carl levin u want to see bipartisanship onhe hill? barrett is, a leading republican and democr both with the -- there is, a leading republican and mocrat both with concerns abt the policy. >> president oba has flowed richard nixon's great dictum, that a leader s to be challenging his ba at any moment to really be a leader. he was certain challenging his base. his candacy was launche on his anti-war position in 2002 against thiraq war, a position which i think has been vindicated and valated by the arguments made to vance that war -- weapons of mass destruction, wave of democracy sweeping across the islamic world, and no connection to 9/. that is where his base and enthiasm came from, and right now, disilsionment, and certainly at the best, lack of enthiasm. >>hold that thought. leme play the nger version of the sound bite we pyed at the beginning of the brocast. >> i definitely did notxpect it from him as our new president. thats something i wouldave expected from bush. it has tak me byurprise and i don't agree th >> it. >> we allnow

senator lugar? >> mr.hairman, i join you in welcoming secretary loo, ambassador eikenberry and general petraeus. we appreciate that you've come to the foreign relations committee today. this builds on the hearing left week with secretary clinton and admiral mullen and explored not only the prospects for success of the military campaign in afghanistan but also how the president's plan fits into our broader strategic objectives of preventing terrorist attacks and stabilizes the middle east and south asia. much of the debate in congress has focused on the president's stated intention to begin withdrawing some u.s. troops by july 2011. some members have voiced concerns that such a date undercuts impressions of the u.s. resolve, gives the taliban and al qaeda a target beyond which they can wait us out. other members with a very different view of the war worry that july 2011 date is so flexible it offers no assurance that troops will be withdrawn. this is a legitimate item for debate, but i am doubtful the succe

. >> thank you very much senator lugar. let me just say senator dodd may have to leave at some point during the testimony because he has to chair the bernanke commination cairnes today so we suspect that maybe the reason you have to go. >> i have-- with. >> madam secretary thank you for being here. mr. secretary if he would follow the secretary of state and admiral mullen if you want to summarize the can put your full testimonies in a record. >> thank you very much chairman kerry and ranking member lugar and to all the members of this committee. it is an honor for me to be here to testify before you and also to continue the dialogue. both the chairman and the ranking member's statements as would be expected, were extraordinarily thoughtful, raised a lot of the hard questions we are grappling with an's the challenges that we have to meet on both the administration and congress together and i want to thank the committee for their constructive role it has played in helping us to address the difficult issues raised in their reg

senator lugar. >> mr. chairman i join in welcoming secretary clinton, secretary gates and admiral mullen. we appreciate very much that you love come to the formulations committee today. the presence of palfrey view underscores the success in afghanistan depends on both military and civilian programs. we must in the civil military approach with the interlocking elements of the new lynaugh strategy. as we consider our course and afghanistan would evaluate options according to how well they contribute to the united states national security. the purpose of committing tens of thousands of troops, billions of additional dollars to iraq and afghanistan must be to enhance united states security and the vital national interest in the region. this may seem to be an obvious point, but during long wars, specific tactical objections can become in some cells. disconnected from the broader strategic concept or encountering of finite resources. pursuing al qaeda or the taliban and in proving governance and economic opport

senator lugar and i are the most senior republicans on the floor of the united states senate. we came at the same time. i have to say that having been here all these years, we have never really had a fiscal conservative majority in the united states senate. except through great presidential leadership -- reagan, bush i, even president clinton on occasion, and bush ii, because we've always had enough liberals on our side to go with the almost all liberal democrats that we've never really will a fiscally conservative majority. i appreciate the comments of my good friend from illinois about medicare advantage, but he's just plain wrong. medicare advantage has made a tremendous difference in the lives of almost 11 million people -- beneficiaries, if you really call them what they should. what he failed to mention is that the program has given choice to every medicare beneficiary across the country regardless of where they live. regardless of where they live. medicare advantage saves beneficiaries dollars. seniors have lower co-payments, cost-sharing, and deductibles through medica

[laughter] senator lugar. >> thank you, mr. chairman. but the follow-up on your questions as well as the responses of the witnesses. secretary clinton, in your testimony, on page to use it we will work with the afghan and pakistani governments to eliminate safe havens for those plotting attacks against us and our interest. as the third point we will develop a long-term sustainable relationship with afghanistan and pakistan so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. each of you and your testimony in response to the thought that al qaeda may be diffuse as well as other terrorist groups said of course, but this border area significantly is different. admiral mullen, you pointed out again. and significantly different as a base for the greatest threat and satori gates, you mentioned how the mog red and where the sort of feed into the spiritual and intellectual what ever you want to call it leadership that is coming out of the situation. now, the problem i want to ask each of you to express is we have heard you say we believe that a strong

lugar,no. mr. mccabe,no. mrs. castle,aye. mr. mcconnell,no mr. menendez,aye. mr. merkley, aye. ms.mikulskiaye. mr merkowski, no. mrs. mary,aye. mr. nelson of nebraska,aye. mr. nelson of florida,aye. mr. pryor,aye. mr. reed of rhode island,aye. mr. reid of nevada, [laughter] mr. reid of nevada,aye. [laughter] mr rich, no. mr. roberts,no. mr. rockefeller,aye. mr. sanders, mr. schumer,aye. mr. sessions, mrs. shaheen, aye. mr. shelby, ms. snowe,no. mr. spector,aye. mr stabinow, aye. mr. tester,aye. mr thune, no. mr udall of colorado,aye. mr. udall of new mexico,aye. mr.vitter, no. mr.voinivich, no. mr. warner,aye. mr. webb,aye. mr. white house,aye. mr. wicker,no. mr. whiden, aye. mr. bennett of utah, no. this is a hutchinson,no. mr. cochran,no. mr. bennett of colorado,aye. [no audio] mr. sessions,no. [no audio] [no audio] [no audio] [applause] mr. sanders -- [laughter] >>yes? >> mr. sanders, aye. mr. shelby -- no. [no audio] [no audio] >> and the other senators wishing to go toward change their vote? the amendment is passed. [no audio] >> i had a restless night worrying about bipartisa

and on the nonmilitary side, it is expensive as well.Ñi the president has signed the kerry-lugar billast fall if i said $1.5 billion, people would have said and say wow. but $1.5 billion over 10 years is $15 million and make pakistan the largest single repository of american economic assistance in the world outside of afghanistan and iraq. what happened in the eight months from march 27 until his speech last week at west point? many, many things, but two which i want to highlight. first on the military side. we had an unprecedented event or virtually unprecedented event. the strategic review called upon the commander of isaf forces in afghanistan to come up with an operational plan for a counterinsurgency strategy in afghanistan. that was given to general mckern and. he was judged to be the wrong man for the job and was fired by secretary gates. that was a huge thing. the last time we fired a battlefield commander during wartime was 1951. and the issue then was whether or not to use nuclear weapons against communityist china. i don't know what the general did, but if he got in as much

senator lugar? >> mr.hairman, i join you in welcoming secretary loo, ambassador eikenberry and general petraeus. we appreciate that you've come to the foreign relations committee today. this builds on the hearing left week with secretary clinton and admiral mullen and explored not only the prospects for success of the military campaign in afghanistan but also how the president's plan fits into our broader strategic objectives of preventing terrorist attacks and stabilizes the middle east and south asia. much of the debate in congress has focused on the president's stated intention to begin withdrawing some u.s. troops by july 2011. some members have voiced concerns that such a date undercuts impressions of the u.s. resolve, gives the taliban and al qaeda a target beyond which they can wait us out. other members with a very different view of the war worry that july 2011 date is so flexible it offers no assurance that troops will be withdrawn. this is a legitimate item for debate, but i am doubtful the succe

senator lugar? >> mr. chairman, i join you in welcoming secretary loo, ambassador eikenberry and general petraeus. we appreciate that you've come to the foreign relations committee today. this builds on the hearing left week with secretary clinton and admiral mullen and explored not only the prospects for success of the military campaign in afghanistan but also how the president's plan fits into our broader strategic objectives of preventing terrorist attacks and stabilizes the middle east and south asia. much of the debate in congress has focused on the president's stated intention to begin withdrawing some u.s. troops by july 2011. some members have voiced concerns that such a date undercuts impressions of the u.s. resolve, gives the taliban and al qaeda a target beyond which they can wait us out. other members with a very different view of the war worry that july 2011 date is so flexible it offers no assurance that troops will be withdrawn. this is a legitimate item for debate, but i am doubtful the suc

senator kerry and senator lugar and chairman berman in the house passed the so-called kerry-lugar-berman bill which is $7.5 million over five years, authorized money, for pakistan civilian aid. that was a landmark bill. somewhat misunderstood in some quarters in pakistan, but it was designed to bring large projects and energy and water. plus, education and health projects to the people of all of pakistan. energy, for example, karachi, the according's largest muslim city, 18 million people, four hours of electricity a day during the summer. this year. this was created an economic spiral. textile mills were closing because of the lack of energy. there were demonstrations in the streets. this was creating instability. there's a lot of political problems. and meanwhile, in the west, the situation you described and we wanted to take an integrated approach to pakistan in its own merits. and my own personal view is we ought to increase the aid to pakistan. now, in regard to the sanctuaries, i believe and general petraeus, i know, also shares this view and, in fact, i think he said it today publ

inhofe, kyle, lemieux, lugar, mccain, connor, rich, roberts, sessions, voinovich and wicker. >> mr. byrd, aye. mr. webb, aye. mr. vitter, no. mr. baucus, aye. >> mr. kerry. mr. kerry, aye. mr. schumer, mr. schumer, aye. mr. kaufman, aye. mr. shelby, no. mr. bennett of utah, no. >> mr. lincoln. mrs. lincoln, aye. ms. landreaux. ms. landreaux, aye. >> on this vote, the yeas are 63, and the nay are 55. the motion is agreed. the question is on the motion to concur with the house amendment. sufficient second? there appears to be a sufficient second. clerk will call the roll. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: mr. leader. mr. reid: may we have order, mr. reid: may we have order, >> leader, may we have order, please the presiding officer: anyone wish to change their vote or hasn't voted? by a vote of 88 ayes and 10 noes, the motion to concur on the house amendment to the senate amendment on defense appropriations is approved. leader. mr. reid: first of all, to the united states senate, this is a good strong message we've sent to our men an

he was very patient, very kind, very decent to two young senators, senator lugar and myself who bothctly the same time. and i will never forget that. in the intervening years, i've seen this man play his fiddle and do it with such joy. i've seen him love his wifelike a man ought to love his wife. i've seen him be kind to his dog i've seen him be kind to numerous people. i've seen him go out of his way for all of us from time to time. and yet, there was no more formidable senator on the floor of this senate than senator byrd. as he has continuously through the years educated us on ancient history, modern history, the constitution, anybody who has listened to those discussions and remarks on the floor has got to acknowledge this is one very, very bright and intelligent man. to think that he got his law degree, if i got this correctly, over the years as a u.s. senator while he was serving -- and i know he hardly ever missed a vote, but went on to law school and got a law degree while a sitting u.s. senator is pretty remarkable to me. i don't know anybody else in this body who could have

today, i'm calling upon congress to pass a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by john kerry and richard lugar that offers $1 billion in support for the pakistani people every year for the next five year, which will build schools, roads, and hospitals and strengthen their democracy. i'm also calling on congress to pass another bill that creates opportunity zones to develop the economy and bring hope to places plagued with violence. we will ask our friends and allies to do their part, including at the donor's conference in tokyo next month. i don't ask for this support lightly. these are challenging times. resources are stretched. but the american people must understand that this is a down payment on our own future because the security of american -- of america and pakistan is shared. pakistan's government must be a stronger partner in destroying these safe havens and we must separate al qaeda from the pakistani people. these steps are also indy spenceable to our effort in afghanistan. security d demands a new sense of share responsibility, and that's why we'll launch a stand, trilateral dialog

senator jon kyl who is a republican and some of the members including richard lugar who is the rankingions committee and john kerry who is the committee of the committee. on the house side the armed service committee has issued a statement saying i commend obama for his my main concern has been that the president listened to our military leaders and the commanders on the ground does congressman skelton and he did. i have urged the president to give general mcchrystal the resources in the times to do the job and i am pleased that the president has agreed to provide the resources to get afghanistan right. that statement from mike skelton. or if your reaction including lancaster, pennsylvania. >> thank you mr. scalia. thank you for c-span. thank you for allowing us to air our opinions. i'm calling because i support the president but i don't support his afghanistan war strategy. i think that this war was a good war in the beginning when we were attacked on 9/11. guess they were based in afghanistan and it was right and it was bush's fault. he diverted all the resources to iraq which was a

the president has approved the kerry-lugar legislation which triples economic assistance to pakistan,.5 billion. last fall, we thought that was a lot of money. people look at me now and say, we spent that on general motors in a half an hour. over 10 years, that is $50 billion. -- $15 billion. it will make pakistan the largest single repository of american economic assistance outside of afghanistan and iraq. what happened in the eight months from march 27 until the speech last week at west point? many things, but two i want to highlight. on the military side, we had an unprecedented event. the strategic review called upon the commander of forces in afghanistan to come up with an operational plan for a counterinsurgency strategy in southern and eastern afghanistan. that task was given to general mckiernan. for reasons i do not know, he was judged to be the wrong man for the job. he was fired by secretary gates. the last time we fired a battlefield commander during wartime was 1951. and the issue then was whether or not to use nuclear weapons against communist china. i do not know what t

i worked on these provisions with my republican colleague, dick lugar, from indiana, who is a hero of mine. the diabetes prevention program is based on what we learned in minnesota and in indiana. prediabetics can avoid becoming diabetic if they get access to community services like nutritional counseling and gym memberships. these are proven to cut the risk of developing diabetes in half so people can live healthier lives and their health care costs less. we'll replicate this program across the country. we'll also guarantee that routine checkups and recommended preventive care like colonoscopies and mammograms are covered by all insurance plans at no cost. no co-pays for preventive care. i'm also happy the bill requires a minimum medical loss ratio, something i've been fighting for with senator rockefeller. this is going to make health insurance companies put at least 85% of their premiums toward actual health services, not administrative costs, marketing campaigns or profits or bloated c.e.o. salaries. advocates have been trying to get these profit restrictions in place in many stat

chairman, senator lugar, members the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss this situationin afghanistan together with deputy secretary le wuchlt and eikenberry. i provide my assessment of the situation in iraq as commander of the multi-national force in iraq and i appreciate this opportunity to discuss the way ahead in afghanistan. let me state up front thapt i fully support the policy president obama announced at west point last week. success in afghanistan is necessary and afeign abttainable challenges are greats. the united states and its isep partners can defeat and set conditions in afghanistan to prevent reestablishment of the sanctuaries that enjoyed there prior to 9/11 and we can degrade the capabilities of the afghan taliban and other extremist elements while building afghan security forces that can increasingly lead the fight against the taliban allowing international forces to redeploy over time, but none of this will be easy. improving the capacity of the afghan government will also be difficult, as ambassador eikenberry forthrightly observed during the deliber

and on the nonmilitary side, it is expensive as well.Ñi the president has signed the kerry-lugar billast fall if i said $1.5 billion, people would have said and say wow. but $1.5 billion over 10 years is $15 million and make pakistan the largest single repository of american economic assistance in the world outside of afghanistan and iraq. what happened in the eight months from march 27 until his speech last week at west point? many, many things, but two which i want to highlight. first on the military side. we had an unprecedented event or virtually unprecedented event. the strategic review called upon the commander of isaf forces in afghanistan to come up with an operational plan for a counterinsurgency strategy in afghanistan. that was given to general mckern and. he was judged to be the wrong man for the job and was fired by secretary gates. that was a huge thing. the last time we fired a battlefield commander during wartime was 1951. and the issue then was whether or not to use nuclear weapons against communityist china. i don't know what the general did, but if he got in as much

notwithstanding whatever nexus there is and it does not rise to the level, of building and senator lugar'sening statement where he talked about the question of being fixated on al qaeda and committing a certain number of troops that may be out of proportion to the level of threat. you both address this in your statements. there is a way that you do not always hear the escalation -- exclamation point. some feel the nexus is not sufficient. it brings security bubble to a three-year have to have 100,000 troops. what i want you to do is put the exclamation point on it. how do you convey through your experience and the stakes you are trying to protect what is at stake here so people understand why the president, who clearly at west point said he does not take this decision lightly. no one would to make this kind of commitment. in the simplest of terms, what is it that compels you to say al qaeda in pakistan remains [unintelligible] in afghanistan? >> i would say the situation today is more dangerous than it was one year or 18 months ago. because it is clear that just on the pakistani side of th

i note that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, senators klobuchar, bayh, franken, and lugar from this side of the aisle recently sent a letter in which they said, "independent estimates indicate that this tax could translate into an annual income tax surcharge of between 10% and 30% on medical device manufacturers." think about that. a 10 fo iii to 10% to 30% tax oo are designing things to help us. this was a letter to the chairman of the finance committee. now, i know there are some who argue that lost jobs in the private health care sector will be made up with new jobs in the government, with health care bureaucrats here in washington. wonderful, i say. that is not a good thing. we need jobs in the private sector. that should be our primary goal, and that certainly is what president obama was talking about yesterday when he talked about creating more jobs in the private sector. so, mr. president, in cliewrks i had i've just -- so, mr. president, in conclusion, i've just described three ways in which this legislation through its mandates and new taxes will cripple our abili